On Tuesday evening, I had an eye-opening and heart-touching experience that I want to share with you. I had a District Pastors meeting at Wilken's Ave. Mennonite Church in Baltimore. I accidentally arrived 45 minutes early (I wish that would happen to CCF members on Sundays). Anyway, since I had time to kill and it was a beautiful 75 degree evening, I decided to cruise around the streets of Baltimore with my doors locked and my windows down...makes sense, huh? After 5 minutes, I was in deep thought about what I was seeing. After 20, I was becoming choked up and felt like I was going to begin weeping for these streets. In 30 minutes I saw drug deals, drug dealers, prostitutes, drunks, open alcohol, high people stumbling around, tears, anger, children with no parents around and hardly any clothes on and more...a lot more. This area surrounding this church is ripped with pain, brokenness, poverty, lost people and stuck people. I cannot really even articulate it for you here, because even as I type right now, I am feeling for this area and lost people in an overwhelming way! I don't even know what to say.Let me start here. How broken are we for broken people? How much of your energy goes into people that are lost, confused and dying? Have you ever driven through a neighborhood like this? Listen, I know that the nations need us! But, I am also struck by the fact that my neighborhood needs me! Baltimore, DC, and PG County has no shortage of lost and broken lives that need put back together.
I think that God is looking for people that are going to love the lost more than they do the saved! ...And live that out by putting more of their money, effort, time, energy and resources into going after them. Maybe, just maybe it should be the church? And don't tell me that it's already doing it...because it isn't! The church spends the huge majority of its money, time and energy pleasing itself and what kind of music and carpet it wants.
My prayer this afternoon is that we will become urgently concerned about loving and reaching people so that Jesus can forgive them and heal them! If this post wasn't already so long, I would start sharing with you what God has been showing me in Luke 7:36-50 over the last few days. Will post on this soon.
--Love you!
4 comments:
Noah,
We're living this out here in metro Detroit. My wife and I, along with 18 other staff members work "secular" jobs and give our time for REAL Church. This way, we can use our finances for reaching the poor of our city. We are a LIVING Acts church for the poor!
If anyone is looking to invest in a ministry that is DOING IT, then feel free to click on www.1realchurch.com and look for the DONATE button. We'd appreciate any help we can get, because even though we're reaching great amounts of people, they give out of their poverty. We love them so much, because we see Jesus in them!
Just wanted to leave some positive feedback on what we're doing out here.
TJ Reid
Noah,
Yes, this is the reality we live with each day. The brokenness in this world is overwhelming, and the struggle to love as Christ loves is real. Truly loving others requires a miracle from God. We need to be compelled by His love and see others through His eyes – not from a worldly perspective. However, we cannot do this on our own – we need His help. This has become my prayer so that we can effectively carry out the mandate of the Ministry of Reconciliation and be true Ambassadors for Christ.
Todd Scholtz
Lead Pastor – Wilkens Avenue Mennonite Church
II Corinthians 5:14-20 – “14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
TJ and Todd,
Both of you have blessed me with what you have shared! Thanks for engaging and for the heart that you also have for the lost!
Looking forward to what we can do together.
Noah
Pastor Noah,
I wanted to comment the day you wrote this, but I couldn't get passed feeling convicted. I live in Nortwest Baltimore and can choose not to see the hopelessness if I drive in the opposite direction of the city and hop on 695.
You ask in your blog, "How broken are we for broken people?" Well we can not experience the brokeness of others if our eyes are closed to them.
Thank you for keeping your eyes and heart open and your reminder that we have a responsibilty to do more.
Cat
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